Je ne suis pas asthmatique.

I hopped on the train and chose my seat.

Next stop.

A girl hopped on and sat down next to me. She was coughing a lot and i thought to myself "uh-oh...i'm going to come down with yet another thing"...

As the train ride progressed, she pulled out her inhaler. I had forgotten that she was asthmatic. You see, i had often seen her on this train and she has on a number of occasions taken a puff from her inhaler, especially in the colder months.

How could i be so unsympathetic? I know how bad it is to be sick and not wanting to go to work, but having to go because you are sick, but not that sick. Sounds like torture when you put it down in writing, but some people are unable to work from home or they just can't afford not to work even if they are sick.

I use to have really bad asthma. I've taken it for granted that I have overcome it and that I am no longer a slave to my Ventolin.

But it wasnt like it was easy to overcome. Often it felt like I was running an uphill battle and the funny thing is - that is exactly how i overcame it.

I ran.

I exercised. I exerted my lungs and my heart to a point where my organs got use to the exertion. They started to switch on and function as per normal without the drugs. And then, I stopped coughing and wheezing and feeling as though my lungs were going to explode.

It was a slow process in reducing the amount of Ventolin I was taking, as I was increasing my cardio exercise. I started out taking a puff before, during and after exercising. Then I slowly dropped it down to a puff before and during (if needed). As my cardio increased, then just a puff before my exercising. And one day...I just decided to forgo the single puff before starting.

It was tricky to deal with at this stage. And I think if I was ever wheezing, it was happening out of anxiety and the fear of having an attack, when in fact I was really fine.

I stopped using my Ventolin when I was about 19-20, there abouts. I carried it around in my handbag where ever I went, but I didn't have to use it for about a year or so. And then I stopped carrying it and it has been a good number of years now.

I have also stopped ticking the box which says "Asthma"? on the various forms I fill out.

Sometimes, when I do my interval training on the treadmill, or when I run outside and the air is really crisp, I still wheeze a little. But its nothing unbearable and I can jog it off. I think its more from being unfit than an onset of adult asthma.

Well, I hope.

(lit: I do not have asthma)